No-kill shelters

IN OUR VIEW

Santa Clara is attempting to convert its animal shelter to a no-kill facility. Doing so follows a trend that has taken hold in Southern Utah over the years. The goal is to keep abandoned animals alive and eventually to adopt them out to families who want loving pets.

Nearly gone are the days of an animal control officer scooping up stray pets and holding them for a week or less in a pinned up area before euthanizing them. Instead, more and more people are recognizing the importance of keeping these animals alive so other families can enjoy the company of a loving dog, cat or other animal.

The challenge, of course, is funding. Even though the goal is to keep animals alive, there is a financial reality that even no-kill shelters can't escape. From the moment an animal is "checked in" at a shelter, the race against time is on to find the animal a home before the money runs out.

That scenario likely oversimplifies the problem, but given how quickly no-kill shelters find themselves at capacity, it's a very real problem. And given the other reality that not everyone can be a pet owner - either because leases don't allow for pets or because the family can't afford to properly care for a cat or dog - the challenge is easy to see.

Residents can do their part to help prevent the needless euthanization of animals. Of course, they can give money to shelters to help keep the doors open and the facilities staffed. Most of these kinds of operations operate on a shoe-string budget.

Residents who want to bring a pet into their families can help by checking out what area shelters have to offer. In many cases, the perfect family pet can be found at one of the area's shelters - dogs of any size and many desired breeds as well as cats of all colors, hair lengths and sizes.

And all pet owners can help by controlling the pet population. In other words, spay or neuter your pets to ensure they don't contribute to the growth of the population of pets who don't have a home. It's sad to think that this over-population problem is preventable, in many cases, just by spaying or neutering pets.

Congratulations to Santa Clara for taking this step toward converting to a no-kill shelter. We wish the shelter the best of luck in succeeding in this new mission.

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No-kill shelters

Santa Clara is attempting to convert its animal shelter to a no-kill facility. Doing so follows a trend that has taken hold in Southern Utah over the years.